Saturday's Happenstance
by Evaluating Rae
Summary: Takes place in HalfBlood Prince. Harry runs into an unexpected someone on Saturday afternoon. HPGW


Disclaimer: Like the rest of us fanfiction writers, I don't own the characters of the Harry Potter universe. I merely own the circumstances of this story.

Naturally, feedback is GREATLY appreciated!

Love to all of you!

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**Saturday Morning**

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For a Saturday, the great lawn of Hogwart's was surprisingly unpopulated. 

Harry Potter blames this on the grand, weekend breakfast being held in the Common Room. He'd be in there now, gulfing down pancakes with Ron if he hadn't felt so restless for fresh air.

In twenty minutes, he has dentention with Severus Snape. The mere thought boils his blood. He despises the Professer. He's a grotesque worm, a serpent squriming with trickery and deceit, and Harry wishes, not for the first time, the teacher would swallow his greasy head and die.

Because of Severus, he'd woke to the fog of putris and he had nine minutes now to clear it, before it vapored into a narrow-minded-all-day-sour-mood.

Angry with repulsion, Harry kicks his foot against the grass and under his shoe, something snaps. He curses and looks down. Under the right side of his trainer is a feather quill, gray and white but glinting like silver under the morning sun. He's broken it in half, he realizes, then bends down to pick it up.

"Harry!"

Rushing feet catch up to him before he can register the voice. He looks up to see Ginny Weasley, her red hair glowing like ember, and for the first time this morning, he forgets about his impending three hour imprisionment.

Instead a monster, the one that appeared at the beginning of summer, that's been rooming in his stomach since he first noticed her new, ample curves, coils into a tight ball.

"Ginny." he says, too soft and to eager for his own liking. "Hey."

She smiles at him, a slow, warm curve of her lips, and he feels the monster catching flame.

"Hey, hero."

Said by anyone else, the endearment would annoy him, anger him perhaps, but this was Ginny. To her, the name wasn't a title or badge, it was who he was, who he became four years ago when she'd woken up safe and out of a danger on a cold dungeon floor, and blinked in his looming, tattered figure. He'd resuced her from mortal peril, a glim fate designed by Lord-You-Know-Who and ever since, the admiration attributed to his idealistic exsistence became personal to her. He isn't her idol. He is her savior.

She never lets him forget.

It takes Harry a while to realize Ginny's proffered hand. He grasps it and goose bumps, that have nothing to do with the breeze, crawl up his forearm. She boosts him off the ground and when he's standing in front of her, the quill fisted in his left hand, he struggles with something intelligent to say. She relieves his inner strife by speaking first.

"Are you rescuing school supplies now, Harry?"

She questions, her voice amused.

Harry doesn't hear. He's too busy tampering down the monster, willing it not to deviate into a nervous panic. It isn't until she frowns, he realizes she's been talking to him.

"Er-What?"

She points to his left hand.

"My quill." she says simply, her face smiling. "You saved it from unfathamoble peril."

He follows her finger and opens his fist. The two pieces glint and his cheeks heat in embarassment. He doesn't want to turn and see her look of disappointment.

"I-um-_stepped_ on it, actually." he braces himself, ready for her sadness, but instead, her coffee colored eyes are filled with compassion. She reaches out and takes the pen.

"I'm sorry, Gin." he tells her, truthfully and she licks her lips. Her eyes meet his and she laughs.

"Why? You don't need to be sorry, Harry. " she shrugs a shoulder. "We can fix it."

Her smile eases, both his nerves and his body. Gently, Ginny works to fit the two pieces together, a three-dimensional puzzle glued by her fingers. She ushers him with a small nod. In wordless understanding, he pulls his wand from his jean's pocket and takes two steps back.

"_Repairo._"

He chants and instantly, the quill mends into an unfragmented whole. Giddy with delight, Ginny shakes her shoulders.

"See, Harry? You even save objects. I'm starting to think you can't help yourself."

She laughs, pure merriment that carries from her gut to her throat. It makes him smile. When her enjoyment fades and nothing but the wind can be heard, he's keenly aware of the silence. He motions toward the Common Room.

"Shouldn't you be in having breakfast?"

She scoffs, brushes the question away with a wave of her hand.

"Nah. I needed some fresh air."

Ginny glides the quill through her fingers, feels the feather tickle her palm.

"Then I remembered that I lost this yesterday." she holds it up. "I came out here to see if I can find it."

The breeze carries her hair from her shoulders, reveals the curve of her collarbone. Harry swallows.

"Looks like you found me instead."

Ginny nods and ducks her head.

"I like finding you." she looks up at him. "It's good to see you, Harry. We haven't talked in a while."

Harry shrugs, knowingly.

Lately, Severus Snape, Dumbledore's Pensieve journeys and the Half-Blood Prince's worn book, took turns dominating his thoughts. Then yesterday, Hermonie told him of Ginny's break up with Dean Thomas and inside, he felt a monster with green eyes Disapperate.

Right now, he felt a different one purring.

"I've been-" he thinks of the right words. "-busy."

"You're always busy." At first, she looks disappointed, then a coy smile stretches her lips. "I can't see how you wouldn't be. Saving the Wizarding world takes up alot of time."

"Yeah." he says, then looks at the tip of his trainers. "Yeah. It does."

For seconds the air is thick, then Ginny brushes his nose with the tip of her quill.

"This isn't an ordinary quill you know." She says, matter-of-factly. "It's a skquill."

Harry praises the subject change.

"A what?"

"A skquill."

She smacks her lips and eyes Gryffindor tower.

"Walk with me and I'll explain it to you."

It was more a question then a command, more a shy plea then a question and he obliges her happily. When their feet hit sandstone, Ginny speaks.

"My second year here, I hated Divination--not that my view has changed much." she adds and he laughs, sticks his hands in his jeans pocket. She continues.

"To pass the time, I drew pictures on my arm, cartoons really. I was quite proud of one involving Professor Trelawny and the foot of a troll."

Harry imagines a black and white cartoon of thier divination teacher being smashed into the ground by a half ton creature. His smile grows wider.

"Darius Harper--a second year from Slytherin--who sat behind me, reported my art work to Trelawny."

Ginny takes a breath, listens to their footsteps as they pass a corner.

"I got dention for the whole term. When mum found out why at Christmas break, she was livid. Fred and George were ecstatic, proud that I'd gotten in trouble for tomfoolery."

She stops walking and Harry does the same.

"So they made this for me. It's a skin quill. Whatever I draw is visible only to me and those I want to share it with. Here, I'll show you."

She props the quill between her fingers, holds out the palm of her other hand. Harry watches as she moves the tool over her skin. She holds her open palm to his view.

"See anything?" she asks and he shakes his head, staring at the clean flesh.

"Here, gimme your hand."

When he obliges her, she spreads his fingers, covers his palm with her own, then lets go.

"Now look." she tells him and he does so.

On his palm, an impressively inked Draco Malfoy is flying backwards on his broom, his limbs flailing helplessly until he falls to Harry's wrist and out of view. Harry laughs hard.

"Every picture lasts for five seconds." she tells him.

"That's brilliant!" Harry says catching a breath.

"It's also a prototype. Fred and George are marketing skquills for Weasley's Weezes."

Before Harry can speak, a curse bellows out behind them. Then the sound of angry footsteps.

"Weazel!"

Ginny closes her eyes, mutter's under her breath when she hears the angry greeting.

"Weazel. We've got a bone to pick with you!"

Slowly, the red head turns around.

"Go slyther back under your rock, Hapzini. It's Saturday."

Gaining speed, the object of Ginny's irrtability curls his thin lips. Brandon Hapzini stops when he's two feet in front of them. Beside him, Marcus Gavelbeck pants for breath, his portly stomach shaking with every inhalation. They're both clutching their wands in a tight grip.

"What do you want, Brandon?" She asks him tartly.

Hapzini crosses his arms, narrows eyes as dark and thin as his hair.

"We heard what you did to Goyle."

"Yeah? What's it matter to you? Did you fancy him?"

Ginny squares her shoulders, digs the top of her trainer into the ground when Brandon frowns insulted.

"He's Gavelback's cousin."

He points his thumb at his sidekick.

"That's tragic." Harry says in response and for the first time, the two six years notice him.

"Potter?" Brandon's grip tightens around his wand. "You stay out of this. It doesn't involve you!"

Harry recognizes it, the quick look of resignment. Defeating Voldermort a handful of times left him with a permanant stamp of seeming invincibility with his schoolmates. In fear of being irrevcocably conqured, any heckler meant to oppose him, hesitates first. Unless of course that stickler is Draco Malfoy and his entourage.

Little did Brandon know, that growing up with six brother's left Ginny Weasly incapable of being easily subdued. Her wall of strength is another reason why she's become the object of Harry's affection.

Harry throws his hands in the air.

"I play nice on weekends."

He says, backing up a foot and Gavelback sneers at him, a look of evil satisfaction.

"You put the _Muthclaud_ hex on my cousin." Marcus says, turning back to Ginny. "My family doesn't take lightly to assults!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry watches Ginny, behind her back the quill is etching into her palm. Gavelback and Hapzini are clueless.

"I hexed your prat of a cousin because he was affronting Luna with pointless insults! I don't take lightly to my friends being attacked!"

Ginny explains and Brandon clenches his fists.

"You sealed his lips shut!"

"I _shut_ him up! If Goyle learned a bit of verbal decency, I wouldn't have had to hex him!"

The quill stops and Ginny steps closer to Harry. Behind her back, she reaches out her hand, grasps the arm of the young wizard. Brandon is retorting something unintelligent, when Harry looks down at his forearm, watches an animated Hapzini dangling up-side down in the air.

"I'm not going to let you get away with this, Weazel!" Gavelback tells her, and she scoffs.

"Don't flatter your skill, Marcus."

He's offended and red when he readies his wand. Brandon does the same.

"C'mon." Gavelback says. "Let's see what you got, Red."

Ginny's lips curve, as slowly as Harry reaches for his wand.

"No thank you." she replies "I don't want to mess up your face."

Marcus clenches his teeth, anger making him speechless. Harry braces himself when the red-head beside him grips her wand. She looks at him, nods briskly and Harry's incantation itches the tip of his tongue.

_"Levicorpous!" _

He shouts and in one, swift flick of his wrist, Brandon is hurled in the air, dangling upside down, the realistic picture of Ginny's drawing. Gavelback has two seconds to try and comprehend before Ginny points her wand at him.

"_Chiroptera!" _

She incants, and instantly, bats fly from Gavelbacks nose, stretching his nasal passages mercelessly. Marcus falls to his knees, hollars out in agitation when the bats pick at his face and nip at the dangling Hapzini.

"Run, Harry!" Ginny shouts, and she grabs his wrist, pulls them away from the scene and behind the corner.

In a fit of laughter, Ginny braces herself against the wall, heaves for breath.

"Did you see their faces?!" she says, amused. "They didn't know what hit them!"

She's still laughing, still reveling in her enjoyment, when Harry feels an excited, restless warmth pull at his chest. It was a feeling he missed, a feeling he wanted more of. It was the feeling you get after a bought of pure, unadulterated fun.

Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm definately going to get dention."

Ginny says the words as her laughter fades, and Harry's stomach drops. She's made him forget where he has to be, and thinking now, of the make-up time Snape was going to have him suffer, wasn't nearly as devestating as he'd expected.

Time isn't wasted when he's spent it with her.

"Dention is worth it. After that."

He tells her and she laughs once more, then buries her face in her hands. She sighs, lifts her head and her smile stretches beautifully.

"You were amazing, Harry." she tells him, slapping his arm playfully. "I wasn't sure if you'd catch my hint, with the picture."

He shrugs a shoulder, flattered.

"I'm good at catching hints."

"Are you?" she says, raising a brow. She bites her lip mischeviously. "Then maybe you can catch this one."

She tugs on his T-shirt, brings his face closer until their lips meet. It isn't deeply passionate, it's a featherlight touch of electricity that jolts through Harry's whole body. His skin is still charged when she pulls away.

Her eyes are heavy lidded when she looks at him, her cheeks, deeply flushed and he wants to bring her closer, wants to lock his lips with her's once more, but the sound of her name flaunts his desire.

She backs away from him, gives him a secret smile when Katie Bell appears from behind the corner.

"Ginny!" Katie says, ignorant of her intrusion. "I've been looking for you! Abbott is showing off her _Aqua__celare _spell in the lavatory. You've got to come see it!"

The red-head nods at the young woman and Katie turns, waiting for Ginny to follow. Harry feels finger's pricking his own, and Ginny begins in stride behind Katie without turning her eyes.

"Bye." she mouths to him before she drops her hand, and he's left watching her retreating form.

"Bye, Gin." he says to her back and when he feels tingling on his flesh, he looks down and smiles.

Written in his palm, in letters inked in black, are the words _My Hero_.


End file.
